£1500+£100 GCBPT Grand Final Main Event (day 1)

 

And so we reach the climax of the 2008 Gala Casinos British Poker Tour.  Over 9 months, 5 regional events, 23 tournaments and an untold amount of bad beat stories have passed since the first event in Edinburgh in February.  It has been a year of great success and record breaking.  Almost all of the events have been a total sell out, and the ’grass roots’ poker tour goes from strength to strength.

 

This was the first of four days of the main event and when the dust settled 78 players had taken their seats.  Amongst these were notable names including Barny Boatman, Vicky Coren, Michael Greco and Nik Persaud.  GCBPT champs Neil Blatchly, Rupinder Bedi, Colin Wu and Ant Arlott were also in attendance hoping to go one better on their regional victories.

 

With all players receiving 15,000 chips, a generous 1 hour clock and player friendly structure - this was never going to be a push or fold festival.  Players were looking to build their stacks gradually with a hope to take the big prize and title of “Great British Poker Champion” on Sunday.

 

Amongst the first casualties was last night’s £500 winner Tom Middleton, who felt that he was in front with his pocket queens on a dry looking board.  Unfortunately Nik Persaud held Aces and Tom was sent to the rail.

 

By the end of play (level 8), 39 players remained, led by Finn Niko Hanninen (61k), Nottingham GCBPT champion Rupinder Bedi (60k) and online qualifier Jacob Abramson (59k).

 

A media event kicked off at 9pm - with 9 players from the poker press and media hoping to claim one of 2 seats to day 1b tomorrow.  After a hard fought contest the winners were ‘Catgirl’ and Azzy from Poker Europa.  They will take their seats tomorrow and face some tough competition from some of European poker’s elite.

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